The University of Florida Health Science Center - the most comprehensive academic health center in the Southeast - is dedicated to high-quality programs of education, research, patient care and public service.

The UF College of Dentistry is the only public-funded dental school in Florida and is recognized as one of the top U.S. dental schools for the quality of its educational programs, oral health research enterprise and commitment to patient care and service.

The College of Medicine, the largest of six colleges at the University of Florida Health Science Center, opened in 1956 with a mission to increase Florida's supply of highly qualified physicians, provide advanced health-care services to Florida residents and foster discovery in health research.

Founded in 1956, the University of Florida College of Nursing is the premier educational institution for nursing in the state of Florida and is ranked in the top 10 percent of all nursing graduate programs nationwide. The UF College of Nursing continually attracts and retains the highest caliber of nursing students and faculty with a passion for science and caring.

Established in 1923, the College of Pharmacy is the oldest college in the UF Health Science Center. Ranked among the top schools of pharmacy nationally, the college supports research, service and educational programs enhanced with online technologies.

The UF College of Veterinary Medicine is Florida's only veterinary college and provides many unique educational programs for students and services aimed at helping pets, wildlife and endangered species. We offer a a four-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine programs as well as M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Veterinary Medical Sciences.

Co-located with the Shands Jacksonville Hospital, the Jacksonville Health Science Center excels in education, research and patient care that expresses our abiding values of compassion, excellence, professionalism and innovation. Our state-of-the-art medical center serves an urban population of 1 million from north Florida to south Georgia.

The UFCOM-J offers accredited graduate medical education residency and fellowship programs, in addition to non-standard fellowship programs. Clinical rotations in all the major disciplines are provided for UFCOM undergraduate medical students and elective rotations to students from other accredited schools.

The UFHSC-J is a clinical teaching site for the Gainesville-based College of Nursing. Students rotate through the various clinical settings on the campus, and primary care centers and specialty care centers located throughout Jacksonville.

The UF College of Pharmacy-Jacksonville offers a four-year Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) Program completed entirely in Jacksonville. Also offered on campus is an American Society of Health-System Pharmacists-accredited pharmacy residency program at Shands Jacksonville.

University of Florida Health knows how important ongoing medical learning is to health care providers and the community. That is why we provide online Continuing Medical Education (CME) courses for you to complete for CME credits. These courses share the latest in medical knowledge, teach new patient-relationship skills and help providers deal with relevant current issues.

Laser therapy shown to benefit dogs with intervertebral disc disease

Amy Reynolds, a technician with the neurology service at the UF Small Animal Hospital, prepares to perform a laser procedure on a dog on Sept. 26. (Photo courtesy of Amy Reynolds)

The use of lasers in veterinary medicine is not new, but University of Florida veterinarians say they are now using the procedure postoperatively with great success in dogs with paralysis caused by intervertebral disc disease.

“Dogs that receive low-level laser treatment after initial surgery are walking a full week earlier than patients that do not receive the treatment,” said Dr. Tom Schubert, a professor of small animal neurology at UF’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “This means less hospital time for the patients, and less stress for patients and their owners.”

Clinicians at UF’s Small Animal Hospital began using the procedure routinely after results from a yearlong study showed the laser’s effectiveness in patients with intervertebral disc disease, which is the most common cause of endogenous spinal cord injury. Schubert and Dr. Bill Draper, a small animal neurology resident, presented their study results at the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine’s annual meeting in Denver.

The study is the first to compare dogs with intervertebral disc disease treated postoperatively with lasers to dogs not treated with lasers, Schubert said. He called the results “revolutionary.”

Thirty-four dogs were included in the study, with 17 in the treatment group and 17 in the control group. The overwhelming majority of the dogs — 75 percent — were dachshunds, a breed genetically prone to intervertebral disc disease.

All dogs included in the study came to the UF Small Animal Hospital unable to walk, and some had lost the ability to experience the sensation of deep pain in their back legs. In addition, all of the dogs had their diagnoses confirmed through either MRI or CT scanning, and all underwent decompressive surgery after their diagnoses, said Schubert.

After receiving training and becoming certified in the laser’s use, Schubert asked the laser manufacturer, Thor Photomedicine Ltd., to loan the equipment to the UF Veterinary Hospitals for the study’s duration.

“The company wanted proof that the equipment works, so they were willing to loan it to us,” Schubert said. After the study was completed, UF purchased the equipment.

“We are currently seeing two to three patients a week with intervertebral disc disease and we are routinely treating all of them with the laser,” Schubert said.

The idea of studying the laser’s effectiveness to treat spinal injury came to Schubert after he heard a former colleague give a presentation on the effectiveness of laser treatment on animals receiving physical therapy.

“I started wondering if we could use this technique in spinal injury cases,” Schubert said. “In addition, I am always looking for projects for my residents, so Dr. Draper and I did some research and reviewed the literature on the use of lasers to help spinal cord injury. Then Dr. Draper put together a protocol. Now we can see that indeed, the laser therapy does help our patients.”

The laser used in the study was a Class 3b, of the near infrared range.

“In humans, this wavelength has been shown to speed healing of conditions such as muscle pain and superficial wounds,” Shubert said. “In animals, it has been shown to prevent nervous tissue scarring, to promote nerve sprouting and to help heal bruised spinal cords in rats.”

Schubert said light therapy is known to affect certain elements within the body, resulting in beneficial effects similar to how light affects chlorophyll in plants.

“After spinal cord injury, broken down cells affect other cells, so you want to restore normal metabolism as soon as possible,” Schubert said. “One function of laser therapy is that it kind of kick-starts the metabolic chain at the mitochondrial level and thereby restarts the production of the energy the cell uses to maintain all of its mechanisms.”

He said the results of the UF study were “amazing” for several reasons.

“Patients walk sooner, they avoid additional medical complications, their owners save money and the animals are less stressed due to less hospitalization time,” Schubert said. “The results were so profound that we’re doing this procedure now on all dogs that come to us with this condition.”

Anyone seeking information about treatment of intervertebral disc disease in dogs may contact UF’s Small Animal Hospital at 352-392-2235.

About the Author

Sarah Carey

Public Relations Director, College of Veterinary Medicine

Sarah Carey, M.A., A.P.R., is director of public relations at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, a job she has held since 1990. Formerly, she was editor of...Read More